The Wonderfully Competent AKG K550 Sealed Headphone

The Wonderfully Competent AKG K550 Sealed Headphone

Mar 14, 2012
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Full-sized, sealed headphones are a bugaboo. They're either too woolly or boomy sounding, or they're too uneven, or they don't seal well enough. Sealed headphones are just plain hard to make sound good. Darn few that jump through those hoops and work well enough to be worth the money.

Wanna watch the K550 make the leap?

Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet at the Village Vanguard

Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet at the Village Vanguard

Mar 13, 2012

From February 28 until March 04, 2012, the Kurt Rosenwinkel Quartet got cozy in the dark and welcoming Village Vanguard for six evenings and 12 evocative sets of guitar-work and authoritative musicianship. Rosenwinkel partnered with friends Eric Revis (bass), Aaron Parks (piano), and the band young’n Justin Faulkner (drums).

The AXPONA Jacksonville Experience

The AXPONA Jacksonville Experience

Mar 13, 2012
The view from the 16th floor of the Omni Jacksonville may look a bit bleak, but AXPONA was anything but. Initial disappointment at the number of exhibits, which diminished to 28 or so when three parties who had contracted for multiple rooms were forced to cancel due to illness, was replaced by delight as I kept encountering enthusiastic attendees hungry for good sound.

Talks with several exhibitors, including Dick Diamond of YG Acoustics and Rob Robinson of Channel D, revealed their delight at meeting a goodly number of knowledgeable audiophiles who were as educated and committed as they were eager to explore. Hey, Jacksonville may not have a reputation as a capital of cultural sophistication, but I could play Schubert and Mahler as well as Rosa Passos and Charles Lloyd without everyone running for cover.

Fun with The Signal Collection & M•A Recordings

Fun with The Signal Collection & M•A Recordings

Mar 13, 2012
I fell in love with Todd Garfinkle's oft-exotic, ambience-rich, superbly recorded gems on M•A Recordings years ago, and have always looked forward to seeing him displaying his latest discs at shows. Now relocated from Japan to Los Angeles, Todd has found an ideal show partner in Chris Sommovigo. Chris, importer of Michael Fremer's reference Continuum Caliburn turntable and designer of the once heralded Illuminati digital cable, currently resides in Atlanta, where he engages in mischief and distributes a host of components, including his own Black Cat Morpheus! cabling, under the umbrella, "The Signal Collection."

Avatar Acoustics Points the Way

Avatar Acoustics Points the Way

Mar 13, 2012
You can usually count on former airline pilot Darren Censullo of Fayetteville, GA to put together an exhibit that sounds as good as it looks. Impeccably displayed, although in light that barely revealed their true Tuscan leather exteriors and aluminum front baffles, the beautiful Rosso Fiorentino Sienna loudspeakers from Italy ($24,995/pair) shared the ambience with the Dr. Feickert Analogue Firebird turntable ($12,995) and Analogue DFA 12.0 tonearm ($1495 with table); AMR (Abbingdon Music Research) CD-77.1 CD player ($10,995), PH-77 phono preamp ($11,995) AM-77.1 integrated amp in mono vertical biamp mode ($9995), and DP-777 DAC ($4995); AMI-HIFI HDR Mini Server Version music player ($2995), Monk Audio phono preamp ($3495), a host of Acoustic System International Resonators ($250–$2850 each) and LiveLine cabling ($995–$2100), as well as the company's 3-shelf equipment rack ($3500) and Top Line feet ($750/set); and Avatar Acoustics' own Mach 4 Power Distributor w/captive ASI power cord ($1995) and Afterburner 8 wall outlet ($80).

JIB Cables

JIB Cables

Mar 13, 2012
Strange that I, who often blogs about cables and lives may 40 minutes from JIB-Germany's US headquarters in Fremont, CA, has yet to meet them anywhere but at shows. Certainly the company's oxygen-free copper cabling, which has been available for two years, looks promising in passive display mode, and sounded good in a diminutive Napa Valley Acoustics system. Certainly JIB's literature, which touts cables for hi-fi and home cinema, is beautifully put together. Belle Tsai tells me that cables range in price from $200–$1000, depending upon model number. The company even sells earbuds. Gotta try some of these babies sometime.

The French Horn Guy

The French Horn Guy

Mar 13, 2012
So here we are on Saturday night, Rob Robinson of Channel D, Jeff Joseph of Joseph Audio, and myself of something or other, chilling in the ridiculously oversized chairs in the Omni Jacksonville's lobby near the elevators, awaiting the arrival of Rob's wife Claudia so we can all head out to Thai dinner, when Jacksonville Symphony French horn player Aaron Brask, aka "Last Horn," appears out of nowhere and on your mark-get set-go begins telling us how absolutely, positively, and totally stoked he is that we have brought all these high-end audio exhibits to Jacksonville. It seems that, given that artist Brask is unable to talk while his embouchure is otherwise occupied with his instrument's mouthpiece, the boy has seized the opportunity to gush, and I mean gush, over his chance to finally hear the equipment, big and small, that he had been reading about and lusting after for all these years.

Smyth Research Recreates Audio Nirvana

Smyth Research Recreates Audio Nirvana

Mar 12, 2012
Having recently written a detailed description of Smyth Research's amazing Realiser, which was posted to these pages on February 21, 2012, I shall leave to your click and downward scroll a detailed description of the Realiser's ability to virtually reconstruct "the complete experience of listening to actual loudspeakers in an actual room, in up to eight-channel surround."

YG Acoustics' Imposing Anat III Signature

YG Acoustics' Imposing Anat III Signature

Mar 12, 2012
In a room too small to do YG Acoustics' gems full justice, YG's Dick Diamond had assembled a most impressive system for the Anat III Signature ($119,000/pair, back) and sometimes played, more modestly sized Carmel loudspeakers ($18,000/pair, front). We're talking the same four-piece dCS Scarlatti system (approx. $79,000) and Veloce Audio LS-1 battery powered line stage preamp ($18,000) used in the Scaena room, plus two Krell Evo 402e amplifiers ($18,500). Cabling was all Kubala-Sosna, and a PS Audio Juice Bar took the place of power conditioning. Needless to say, the system presented a complete symphonic picture, with solid bass extremely natural and controlled, as opposed to hyped up. In addition, instrumental timbres were pretty much right on.
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